The judiciary of Bangladesh is heavily loaded with negative tags including high backlogs; severe delays; huge costs; corruptions; inconsistency in delivery of justice; absence of transparency; limited, unsafe and unplanned use of technologies; mismanagement in court documents; puzzled litigants; less conviction of perpetrators and so on. The insufficient and unplanned use of legal tech in the justice system makes the scenario even worst. As a result, the present justice system needs a major transformation from age old colonial fashioned delivery of justice to adoption of cutting-edge technologies to make its services people oriented. Advancements in tech tools like the emergence of artificial intelligence powered tools, blockchain technology, broad access to internet etc enable the court systems to provide efficient and effective justice nowadays.
The
present interim government of Bangladesh formed a commission to reform the
justice sector while the commission has already submitted their report to the
government. Although the implementation of the reform proposals depends on
national consensus among the political parties and other stakeholders.
Nonetheless, Bangladesh judiciary requires massive integration of legal tech in
all stages of litigation immediately to make its services productive and easily
accessible to the people.
The
integration of legal tech in all stages and across all courts will promote
transparency and accountability, make the complex process of litigation easy
and fast, affordable and facilitate the overall court services to the people.
The utility of legal tech has already been proved in many jurisdictions, and it
becomes an integral part of modern judiciary.
In
2020, when the court systems became paralysed due to the COVID19 lockdowns
worldwide, technologies were extensively applied as a means to combat the
pandemic restrictions and opened new doors for access to justice challenges.
Bangladesh also similarly witnessed the blessing of legal tech at that moment.
The promulgation of the Usage of Information and Technology in Court Ordinance,
2020 (subsequently, the Adalat Kartrik Tottho-Projukti Bebohar Ain,
2020) was one step forward towards the integration of legal tech in the courts
although little progress have seen after that.
Presently
there are some uses of legal tech in the judiciary i.e the website of the
Supreme Court (SC) provides cause list, judgments and orders, a web portal disseminate
e-cause list for all subordinate courts (https://causelist.judiciary.gov.bd), a
website to circulate subordinate court’s decisions (https://decision.bdcourts.gov.bd),
an online monitoring tool to collect and analysis data from subordinate courts
(mcsc.supremecourt.gov.bd), bail orders can be accessed and verified through
the 'Bail Confirmation Online Manual', an online knowledge base platform for
the judges (faq.bdcourts.gov.bd) etc. The government's a2i project has created
supporting app like Judicial Monitoring Dashboard My Court. A platform has been
introduced to provide information relating to judicial services including
inheritance calculator, judipay, e-filing, e-certified copy etc (www.judiciary.gov.bd).
In
2025, a High Court Division (HCD) bench launches WhatsApp based slip receiving
system. Under the new system motion, extension of time and application slips
will have to be scanned and sent to a designated WhatsApp number within
stipulated time. Earlier this year another HCD bench introduced paper free
filling of cases. However, the bench requires physical filling of an affidavit
along with print confirmation copy of case document uploaded on the SC portal
by the concerned lawyer to the court. On the other hand, using WhatsApp for a
formal legal proceeding represents informal approach.
Nonetheless,
all the abovementioned efforts to digitize the justice sector are either not
functional or insufficient to overcome the present barriers. The above
initiatives are praiseworthy although there are a lot of limitations in these
systems. Some of the above systems were project based whereas many of them are
not functional after the end of the project. The e-cause list programme is not
up to date due to lack of manpower and monitoring.
Moreover,
judicial dashboard and e-certified copy programme are not operational now.
E-filling is not mandatory for the lawyers and that is why lawyers prefer to
file cases manually in paper based physical system due to long run tradition
and habit. As a result, court record and document management faces huge
challenge. Maintain pile of paper files, keeping them in good condition and
searching a document from them manually presents another significant challenge.
Besides, there are century long colonial procedural laws such as the Code of
Civil and Criminal Procedure, Civil and Criminal Rules and Orders etc which do
not allow digital intervention in the court proceedings.
Allocation
of low budget and inadequate investment to digitize the justice system is one
of the main challenges. Furthermore, lack of properly trained court staff to
operate the legal tech tools; absence of supervision and monitoring by the SC;
unfamiliarity with the new systems to the judges, lawyers and staff; necessary
training and technical knowledge gap of the lawyers, judges and staff; habitual
preference of handling court procedure manually etc contribute to linger the
proper digitization of the judiciary.
Nevertheless,
there are risks to incorporation legal tech into the judiciary too i.e. data
privacy and security concerns, discrimination, bias etc. Certain risks
associated with legal tech tools can be effectively avoided through prudent
design, procurement, and regulation, but other risks necessitate continuous
watchful oversight and ethical application along with robust regulation.
Mandatory
e-filling system, video/virtual courtroom, video/remote appearance of accused
from prison, arrangement of distance hearing, advanced systems for digital
record of evidence of witnesses, apply AI in specific court functions,
collaboration and exchange of document electronically with other agencies on
digital data sharing and exchange projects can accelerate the process of digitization
and make the judiciary a truly people’s institution after the mass uprising in 2024.
Published in the Law and Our Rights Supplement of The Daily Star on 22 March 2025.
